Green Revolution

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Group No 19
35021
35048
Gholap
35074
35102

Chinmoy Hait
Manish Ashok
Rahul Bhatia
Vanya Rai

Why analyze Green Revolution?

India faces a triple emergency related to our food and agricultural system.
1. Emerged as the capital of hunger and malnutrition
2. Our food producers are themselves dying because of agriculture and trade policies
3. Those who get food are being denied their right to healthy and nourishing food.
.Analyzing GR would help in looking where and why it failed?
.Better programs can be developed through learning approach

Systemic Issues
The concept of Green Revolution can be traced back to the third five year plan
It was implemented in three phases
Nature of the government in aspect of this program was pro poor when
projected and pro-capitalist to the corw
Government state policies were reformist in nature
This was implemented to fight the food deficiency, to feed the ever increasing
population, handle increasing imports .

Need of the Intervention

Famine had ripped though parts of India in the past, and many economists and
agricultural scientists predicted worse famine in the future.
Food insecurity created political insecurity
Government inability to ensure proper movement of good to areas that were in
need
Government had vested interest to how to cut down imports, increase

surplus and how to feed the increasing population.

Seemed like the only possible solution to existing problem

Goals
Growth: - Attain Self sufficiency and generate surplus.
Productivity:- Increased crop yield due to increase in the use of agrochemicals.
Spillovers
Employment:- Opportunities for marginal and Landless farmers, Increment in the
sale of agrochemical products which eventually leads to increase in employment.
Inclusion: - Included Marginal and landless farmers , 26% of the agricultural
output by 21% marginal farmers.
Poverty Alleviation:- Inclusion of small and Marginal farmers

Strategies
Area based approach:
Area where irrigation existed were chosen
First phase of Green revolution (1962-65 to 1970-73) north western region of
Punjab, Haryana, western UP
Second phase (1970-73 to 1980-83) eastern UP, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat
Third phase (1980-83 to 1992-95) West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Orissa
Target based approach
Small and marginal farmers were seen as potential targets
Convergence Strategies

Design features
Government set up Food Corporation to buy food grains from surplus production areas and distribute it in
areas afflicted with shortage.
It constituted an Agricultural Pricing Commission to ensure a minimum floor price to farmers so that there
was no disincentive for increased production.
Seed and fertilizer corporations were formed Agricultural scientists were motivated to do their work better by
the offer of better pay
Government established 100,000 demonstration plots across the country to prove to the farmers that the
hybrid varieties were indeed more productive.
The Green Revolution was not only a planned initiative but also because it was a conscious and well
conceived program.
Product of globalization transnational funding from groups like the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford
Foundation, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Ten point programme

Adequate farm credit
Adequate supply of essential production needs
Prices incentives
Marketing arrangements
Intensive educational, technical and farm management
Participation of all interested cultivators both large and small
Village planning for increased production
A public works department
Analysis and evaluation of programme from its inception
Coordination on a priority basis
Government made recommendations for the Ford Foundation to assist it in planning and
implementing

Implementation
The concept of Green Revolution can be traced back to the third five year plan
It was implemented in three phases
In the first phase during 1962-65 to 1970-73 , an all India compounded growth
rate of 2.08% / yr. was achieved
Food grain production rose by 35% and aggregate food production increased
from 89 to 112 million tonnes i.e. 10% / capita increase
In the second phase from 1970-73 to 1980-83, with the addition of HYV seed
technology from wheat to rice, Green Revolution extended to other parts of the
country

The third phase from 1980-83 to 1992-95 showed remarkable and encouraging
results
It spread to lower growth areas of eastern region of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam
and Orissa with an unparalleled growth rate of 5.39% /p.a.
The agricultural labour came from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
There were also apprehensions that the small and marginal farmers would
suffer and mechanisation would replace labour which were proved untrue

IMPACT EVALUATION

Food production high: no more the begging bowl

Production and Self sufficiency

Market surplus used to get out of previous debt

201

Vicious cycle of debt

Agriculture requisite increased
Cost of production for farmers increased

102

Price of fertilizer almost 3 times that of wheat

The equivalent wheat import increased by 50 %
7
1950-51

13
1960-61

1970-71

1973-74

Environment
Genetic erosion
Ecological degradation resulted in decrease in returns
An additional 80 million hectare of land needed for equal production
66% increase in cultivable land
Forest saving
Overuse ,not the use of pesticides was the cause of degradations

Employment
RED revolution
Mechanization leading to unemployment
Employment elasticity of output growth declined in later phases
Convergence programs
Urban development through rural development
Real wages of agricultural labor increased in regions with GR
Ancillary industries set up
20 million man days of employment jumped to 850 million mandays

Disparity
Crop to from agricultural point of view. crop
Area to area
More resources diverted to HYV areas thus
non HYV areas suffered
GR affected only those areas which were
already better placed
Wages
Disparity in wages declined but at cost of
migration

Other impacts
Gross irrigated area 1 million hectare to 2.5 million hectare
Number of pumpsets 0.421 million to 2.4 million
Consumption of fertilizers 306 thousand metric ton to 2350 thousand metric ton
Increase in area to increase in yield in growth of agricultural output 1:1 to 1:4
Food imports fell from 10.3 million ton(mt) to 3.6 mt
Availability of food from 73.5 mt to 99.5 mt from 1966 to 1970
Reached 128.8 mt in 1984
Population growth rate was 2.1 % whie food grain production rate was 3 %

Evaluation and feedback

Problem definition: proxies and artefacts
No holistic approach
Too much of a reductionist approach
Full circle and stagnation
Belief that what was good for others will be good for us
Devaluation of local production system
Grain revolution not Green revolution

Evaluation and feedback

Now comes age of Evergreen revolution
Gene revolution : GM seeds
Agroecology
the application of ecological science to the design and management of sustainable
agroecosystems
-working with the land to grow crops that are most suitable for that particular
environment.
-capitalizes on the local knowledge of the area
-lead to a greater sense of democracy since farmers are able to has a say in what crops
that will and will not produce